Classmate Blog Critique

There are several students in the Directed Study 2 course who would serve as an excellent example of how to run a blog. As a part of my critique, I want to set forward this disclaimer that I did not choose a blog based upon whether I thought it was the best. I chose a blog that showed what a blog should look like and how one could excel through their use of proper design and great written pieces. Elizabeth Nalley's MM 3603 blog is certainly a great choice for how a blog should be run.

Home Page Design

Pictured above is the home page for Elizabeth's blog. First and foremost, I love the images that are associated with each post as well as the background. Each of these images shows the center focus of the subject and is cropped well into the blocks that contain them. While credit is due to google for giving many of the templates that we use to make our blogs, there is no doubt in my mind that Elizabeth went out of her way and spent countless hours tweaking each element and ensuring that her homepage got this visually appealing aesthetic that it has today.

Post Design Elements

There are several elements of design that we can focus on that Elizabeth has used to the benefit of her blog. This picture is scrolled down to the middle of her blog post and one of my favorite things that Elizabeth has done is that she incorporated a stand-alone quote into her post. Placing a quote inside a paragraph is okay, but sometimes it can be unappealing to the eye or cause the paragraph to become too long. By using it as Elizabeth has done, this quote breaks up the paragraph and causes the work to become more appealing. Not only that but placing the quote by itself is a focal point for readers. The quote is there without anything to interrupt it and at the center of the page.

Another thing that Elizabeth does well is the placement of her photos throughout the post. Pictures will vary in sizes and in locations which makes the post a piece of interactive reading. No one wants to read an essay! Elizabeth's use of photos to break text into different locations makes the experience much easier and enjoyable to read. 

Last in the design factor was the template choice by Elizabeth. The sidebar on the right allows for multiple interactions to take place. Each post has the image associated with it, a portion of the opening text to open the reader to what the post is about, and best of all, it is a quick link to go to the other posts. When on a blog for my personal reading, I hate having to go to the homepage and scour through posts in order to find the next post, but this simple sidebar gives complete ease of access to her other posts. All in all, Elizabeth's posts are visually appealing.

Written Works

Humans have developed a way of life that is not sustainable for the planet. These actions are coalescing to create massive changes in the climate. Left unchanged, the predictions for what life on our planet will look like in the next 50 years is pretty bleak.

Above is a quote from Elizabeth's Predictions post. This comes from the end of her introductory paragraph to the assignment. The quote above does two things that ultimately drive the reader in. First, it identifies that there is a problem that affects everyone. Since this is not a problem that affects a percentage of individuals but rather everyone, it envokes a sense of unease for the reader knowing that this problem is affecting them.

Second, the last sentence of this quote leads to the rest of her post. By identifying the problem the reader has and then by showing them more information on what is going to happen with this problem, it causes the reader to seek the information out through the blog post rather than just dismissing it. This is a good example to show that posts don't always have to be happy or encouraging to draw in readers - you can post about anything you want as long as you are able to effectively communicate to your readers.

Conclusion

Elizabeth has a great blog for the Directed Study 2 class. Her work serves as an example of how to run an appealing blog and by using her work for inspiration, others would be able to find more success in their own blogs. I do believe that if Elizabeth uses her experience through this class and creating her blogs, that she will find success if she pursues a career in a field using blogs or other article based sources of information.